


You Found a Bus, We Saw A Baby Moose

by emily4498



Category: Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-03-05 06:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18823420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emily4498/pseuds/emily4498





	You Found a Bus, We Saw A Baby Moose

Christopher McCandless,

We walked up the Stampede Trail. It was cold, wet, and not quite freezing. I must admit, it was beautiful, in its own way. Everything was only just beginning to shake off the deathly white snow. Pieces of green were starting to poke through, but the brilliant white of the snow washed the color from them. The air was clear and the chill settled deep in our lungs like a persistent cough that wouldn’t quite go away. It kept its presence constantly on the peripheral of our awareness.

We veered off the trail to forge our own as soon as we crossed the river. After all, what benefit is it to follow in the footsteps of a dead man? I’m sure you would understand. I suppose most of the trip wasn’t particularly inspiring. Our knees were perpetually damp. It was April when we went and it must have had an impressive snowfall sometime the week before, because near the trees that cast particularly deep shadows, the snow was so deep that my foot sunk far enough for the cold dampness to worm its way into my boot.

The land was, by no means, flat. We spent most of each day hiking up and down small hills and wandering around. Nights were cold, but thankfully, our tents kept us dry.

Around noon each day and every night before lying down to sleep, we all stopped to change our socks and used a few loops of thread to loosely sew our socks to the outside of our packs to dry.

The most exciting part of the trip occurred just before we turned around to head back. On the side of the next hill was a gigantic moose. We stopped to stare for a moment and when we started to retreat from the creature, we saw it. A tiny calf struggling to stand. When we made it home, I looked up some pictures. I don’t think the calf survived. It was born early, very early, but it was still amazing. We couldn’t even say a word to each other until long after the moose had nudged its offspring out of sight.

We didn’t even have the presence of mind to take a picture to prove what we saw.

I think it makes up for never stopping at your “Magic Bus.” Of course, we spotted plenty of other wildlife. There was one point where we were pretty sure we saw the silhouette of a bear in a particularly dense copse, but we kept moving.

Even so, the moose will forever be engrained in my memory. We didn’t set out to see one, but If I ever go back, I will be hoping to see another one of those gigantic, awkward creatures. They’re beautiful in their own way, especially how the cow stood beside her calf, waiting for it to figure out for itself how to stand, and not ever twitching when it fell against her leg. She just stood there as an unwavering guard, waiting for her baby to pull itself up and prove itself to the world on its own merit.

You can understand as well as anyone how important it is to forge one’s own path.

Sincerely,

A Fellow Trail Blazer


End file.
